This is the fifth in this ongoing series for practical people, both Filipino and foreign who care about the country of the Philippines and would like to do something, within their own means and power, to make it a better place.
When you talk to others, especially foreigners, speak positively about us and our country
The hobby of a lot of foreigners and way, way too many Filipinos is to find every flaw, gigantic or tiny, and focus on it … often to the exclusion on any possible solution. Maybe you’ve raised a child and watched them pick continuously at a scab, no matter how times you’ve asked them to stop. Almost makes you crazy at times, doesn’t it? If they just wouldn’t focus on it, it would heal up and go away, but the more they pick at it, the more they seem to want to pick at it, and the worse it gets. A vicious circle.
After three years here now in the Philippines I really get exasperated at the trait often. I’m no Pollyanna, nor am I an apologist. The Philippines, like every country on earth has problems, issues and shortcomings.
It is disingenuous or even downright dishonest to try to hide or artificially deemphasize real problems, but just as I wrote about a month or so ago, when I was talking about the problem of focusing only on the less admirable things in life in general and the Philippines in particular, you don’t have to spend your life talking only about the bad things to the exclusion of a balanced look at the real world.
As a foreigner I am well aware there are a few of my fellow non-Filipinos who either out of meanness or ignorance have said nasty hurtful things about the Philippines and the Filipino people. I may have even been guilty of this a time or two myself, although I certainly don’t make a habit of it.
But my goodness … as long as there are 90 million Filipinos talking to themselves and to visitors about their own country, no one needs to worry about the lapses in manners and judgment by the foreigners. Invariably when I talk about something I see that seems to be a good thing, or ask a question to help me learn if there is a better way to do something I get a near-universal response from Filipinos.
Nothing is right in the Philippines.
All the politicians are crooked and the businessmen are worse.
The workers are lazy and won’t do a day’s work even if you beg them.
And their supervisors are incapable of managing and wouldn’t do a good job if they did know how.
You can’t cure any health problem, because there is no money, and if there was money, someone would just steal it so what’s the use?
Enough. I could go on with a thousand examples …some quite nasty … and all coming directly from Filipinos I have talked to or heard in the media. It’s sad. With “friends” like these … a large cross section of its people … the Philippines doesn’t need to worry about enemies, its so-called friends are doing a bang-up job in tearing the country down.
As I stated a few paragraphs back, no way am I suggesting, ever, that someone lie or refuse to divulge information they are honestly asked for. But goodness, didn’t anyone’s mother ever teach them the old adage, “If you can’t say anything nice about someone, better to say nothing at all”?
It works for countries and national prude too, folks. If you hear someone saying something happy and hopeful about some new project, and you just know in your heart that it won’t work, it will be sabotaged somewhere along the line … why not try a new technique and just keep what you know to yourself. Unless the person with the happy dream is really in some grave physical or moral danger, just let them have the joy of that dream. If it “goes south”, well so be it, they had the joy and the invaluable educational benefits of trying … they didn’t need an anchor to weight them down, why add yours?
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